Larry Kane chats up The Beatles in Upper Merion

Larry Kane entertains the audience at Freedom Hall, Upper Merion, with stories of his experiences while writing about The Beatles Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Photo by Adrianna Hoff/Times Herald Staff.

UPPER MERION — A group of visitors gathered in anticipation in Freedom Hall at Upper Merion Township Building Wednesday. The evening began with the group watching a live interview on UMGA-TV, the Upper Merion Township Government Access channel. The interview was between Karl Helicher and Larry Kane, and the show was “Book Chat.” The subject was the beginning of The Beatles, and the new book under discussion was Kane’s “When They Were Young.”

At the end of the taping, Kane walked from the TV studio into Freedom Hall, and, after a round of applause, continued to entertain the audience with quips and stories about the background of The Beatles, and his own experiences with them.

Kane, the former Philadelphia news anchorman who became a personal friend of John Lennon, began his tale by stating he was not enchanted to be the reporter asked to cover the Beatles’ first U.S. tour. The young reporter was introduced to the band wearing a suit his mother had given him for important occasions. He quickly learned their music was a timeless piece of culture.

“When I traveled with them in 1964, I saw a craziness, a frenzy with them,” said Kane, who appeared in person to the crowd after the screening of the program. “The music took over, and that’s when everyone realized how good they were.”

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Kane’s first book on the Beatles, “Ticket To Ride,” published in 2003, tells of his experience of traveling with The Beatles during their 1964 and 1965 North American tours. The book “When They Were Young” is the prequel to that tour, written to show the environment that the band came from and to smash the preconceived notions of their start.

“This is the hardest book I’ve ever written, because I wrote it from scratch,” Kane said.

Kane’s biggest resource in writing this book was going back over the recorded interviews with the band from when he first met them. In doing so, he found connections between what members of the band said and the stories of their backgrounds.

One such story is about Pete Best, the Beatles’ drummer from 1960-62. During May of 1962, while Best was trying to leave a gig in Manchester, a fan attacked him, accidently stabbing him with a pair of scissors while trying to cut off a piece of the shirt he was wearing for a souvenir. Thirty days later, Best was asked to leave the band by manager Brian Epstein.

“Best was shoved out of a job for no reason,” Kane said.

Another story was about another early member of The Beatles, Stuart Sutcliffe, the group’s original bass player, who along with Lennon was given credit on coming up with an idea for the band’s name, “Beatals,” after Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets. The band’s name was eventually changed to The Beatles, with an emphasis on Beat. While the Beatles were in Hamburg, Germany, Sutcliffe fell in love with photographer Astrid Kirchherr and left the band to study under pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi, but he died in 1962 before he and Kirchherr could be married.

The Beatles certainly experienced their ups and downs in Liverpool, but no one truly expected their iconic success, according to Kane.

“Most people expected them to fail,” Kane said. “The Beatles didn’t know in 1968 that they would become this iconic band.

“Brian Epstein told me, ‘The Beatles will be listened to by the children of the 21st century.’ I thought he was out of his mind.”

“When They Were Young” is available at the Upper Merion Township Library.